Storage of masks and other epidemic-related supplies requisitioned by the government over the past year cost NT$117.65 million (US$4.23 million) through a special budget, which would not continue in the next fiscal year, a National Audit Office budget report showed.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had requisitioned disease-prevention supplies using funds made available through the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), which was passed on March 13 last year.
As of March 28 this year, the CECC amassed 415.95 million masks for public sale through real-name registration, and for medical and frontline workers, the report showed, adding that rationed masks are stored by Chunghwa Post.
Photo: CNA
The CDC amassed 175.51 million masks that it is storing in private warehouses, which costs NT$117.65 million per year in storage fees.
The government is paying the fees through the special budget, which would not be available in the coming fiscal year, the report showed.
Mask production capacity has reached 40 million masks per day, the report added.
The National Audit Office has requested that the government devise a policy to move masks out of private storage as soon as possible, the report said.
The report also outlined the government’s spending on COVID-19 vaccines purchased through COVAX, directly from international manufacturers and from domestic manufacturers.
The government had been in talks to produce international vaccines locally, but local suppliers could produce only one-third the supply required by vaccine companies to become a producer, the report showed.
Vaccine production in Taiwan has traditionally been low, with domestically produced flu vaccines accounting for only 20 to 30 percent of those used in the nation, it showed.
The report suggested that the government focus efforts on ramping up vaccine production and increasing the national vaccination rate.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,